Greek tourism grows twice as fast as global sector

International tourism continued to grow in the January-March period, but at a slower rate than in the previous couple of years: The global increase in arrivals amounted to 4 percent, while in Greece incoming tourism traffic rose 7.8 percent compared to the first quarter of last year, reaching 1.926 million visitors, per the Bank of Greece figures.

Travel receipts in the year to end-March reached 760 million euros, showing an increase of 37.2 percent on an annual basis, with the bulk of the quarter’s arrivals and receipts attributed to city break visitors.

Europe, the world’s largest tourism region, posted an annual increase of 4 percent in arrivals during Q1, led by destinations in Southern Europe such as Greece, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe which outperformed with a 5 percent advance.Globally the most notable growth was recorded in the Caribbean (up 17 percent) and in Africa (11 percent).